Fighting Popularity
by Azhdarcho
Summary: Anzu tries to make a new friend, but some people are easier to impress than others. Pre-canon.


**On ownership:** Yu-Gi-Oh! belongs to Kazuki Takahashi

**On ratings:** Rated K

**On universes:** Pre-canon, Peachshipping-ish

**Summary:** Anzu tries to make a new friend, but some people are easier to impress than others._  
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_For BasedGodCards on Tumblr._

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><p><strong>Fighting Popularity<strong>

"I don't like your nail polish, Anzu. It's ugly," said Koriko.

But it was such a pretty color of pink! Anzu had bought it specifically to impress Koriko. She'd even talked her mom into buying the _expensive_ brand because it was the only kind that was right! But it was still wrong.

Anzu wandered away from the gaggle of girls clustered on the school steps, dejected. She realized that she knew Koriko'd say something like that. Koriko always said something like that. But it still hurt. Koriko was like, super popular and everyone in sixth grade wanted to be her friend. But Anzu still couldn't figure out _how_. She's joined ballet to be around her more often. She took extra lessons in English with her. She'd gotten the right haircut and started wearing leg warmers and even tried wearing lipstick like Koriko did, but she was still always not good enough.

It was stupid.

Anzu made a face at nothing in particular in the schoolyard. No, like, it was really stupid, and she didn't want to do it anymore. Well, ballet was kind of fun, and she liked pink nails, and she was pretty good at English (better than Koriko), but like, Koriko. It was Koriko who was stupid. And way uglier than her nail polish.

And Anzu made up her mind right there do to something on purpose that Koriko would hate. Fortunately for her, Yugi Mutou was sitting right in front of her. He was a loser and he smelled like cheese, and being friends with him would be the perfect way to make Koriko hate her.

Yugi was facing away from her, curled up in his hiding spot that wasn't really a hiding spot, but she could see that he playing a handheld game. She snuck up behind him. Maybe she could scare him. That'd make Koriko laugh. Wait, no, she wasn't supposed to be trying to impress Koriko anymore.

"Hi, Yugi," she said with a smile.

He didn't look up.

Anzu held back, waiting. "I said, 'Hi, Yugi!'"

"Hi," he mumbled. He still didn't look up. Anzu frowned. This was going to be more awkward that she had planned on. She could always just join the chess team, couldn't she?

"What are you playing?" she asked.

His thumbs were sliding nimbly over the green plastic of the game. Left, Right, A, B. "Um, it's called, 'The Return of The Shredder'," he said. Like the Ninja Turtles? No one she knew had liked that show since they were in fourth grade.

Reluctantly, she knelt next to him. Suck it up; it's for a good cause. "How do you play it?" He was still mumbling everything away from her, and she had to resist the urge to shout.

Yugi finally paused the game, and turned to look at her. She tried to make her face look as innocent as possible. She was just trying to be a good friend, right? She didn't like games, but friends do nice things for each other, right?

Suddenly, Yugi's face split into a smile. "Here, I can show you how to play it!" He held the game out for her and scooted close. "Up is jump and down is crouch, and then left and right are different ways you can get to the bad guys and A is punch and B is kick."

Whoa. Anzu stared at him for a moment, unsettled by the change in his demeanor. He was talking like she was supposed to know what he meant. Slowly she took the game from him. It was sweaty and uncomfortably warm. It wasn't too late for that chess team idea, right? She found her way to the start screen, and the little LCD fighters started flashing across the screen. She started hitting buttons at random, exploring combinations of moves, and quickly understood what Yugi had been saying about the left and the right and the punch and B, but the enemies kept hitting her, they were keeping her from punching the way she wanted, and now there were more of them and suddenly a... _something_ flew across the screen. _GAME OVER_.

"What was that?" she exclaimed. No, no, she screwed it up-

Yugi reached across her to hold the game, "Oh, that was shurikens. When you see them show up, on their second graphic you have to crouch."

"Oh." 'Crouch' was down. She restarted the game. This time a couple dudes dropped when she kicked them. Yes! "I killed them!" she said. "I killed him, right?"

"Yeah," said Yugi. He was still smiling about it, and it... it made her feel kind of happy. Then the shurikens flew across the screen and killed her again.

"What? I couldn't dodge because the other guy was kicking me!" She restarted, and this time the guys were like... her hit points disappeared like magic. The game was cheating, she was sure of it. "I can't," she murmured angrily, "I can't- why won't they hold still?" She restarted.

"No, it's like," Yugi started to reach in to take the game, then pulled away, then reached in again, hesitating. "You, like, you have to kick first, and then when he's right- no, right th- right there! You have to roll, no like right as he's-"

She died again. Stupid game! Stupid game! "Stupid, stupid game!" she shouted, hitting it on the ground. The screen blanked out, and Anzu dropped it in horror, the just as quickly picked it up and started pushing all the buttons as fast as she could. "No, no, no, no..." She whacked it with her palm but it wouldn't fix, it wouldn't be ok. She ruined the game, ruined her chance at getting back at Koriko, ruined...

Then Yugi started laughing, and he gently took it from her. "This one is like, really hard," he said. "Cause they send all those guys at you at once. The game that came out before this one is easier. I can show it to you tomorrow."

She opened and closed her hands, which were still pretending to hold on to the game. "Ok," she said, reflexively. He was giving her a second chance, she realized, and it felt... weird. Like it was totally alright to make a mistake. Since when was it alright?

The school bell rang, and Yugi stuffed the game away in his bag. "The last game was pretty cool too, cause it had Agula and Yaotl in it," he was saying as he shrugged the bag onto his back. Anzu stared up at him, still kneeling. He was talking like she was supposed to know what he was talking about again. Yugi shifted the bag nervously. "They, um, they were the bad guys from last season."

"Oh." Anzu stood up. "I don't watch it anymore. I didn't know it was still on TV."

Awkward silence reigned again. On the other side of the school yard, she could see Koriko looking at them and using her gossip face to talk and laugh with the other girls. Anzu gulped. It still hurt. She started to wonder if there was a way she could swing it that she was just making fun of him, or maybe that she was only pretending to be nice to him for a laugh. Koriko would be ok with that. Anzu wasn't sure if she wanted to play another game with him tomorrow anyway.

"I like your nail polish," said Yugi.

She stared at him, but he was just smiling. He really was just saying that earnestly, no secret intentions for her to figure out. Anzu looked at the nail polish. It kind of matched his hair tips, didn't it. "Thank you," she said quietly.

He really didn't smell like cheese did he.

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><p><em>an: Sixth grade in Japan is roughly equivalent to... sixth grade in the US. Go figure. I'm stretching canon a little here because they became friends in "elementary school". _:[


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